It was a bad break — no pun intended — for the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday when ace Corey Kluber took a 102-mph line drive off his forearm and broke his ulna. He’ll be out for a while, making the Indians’ AL Central race with the Twins that much tougher for Cleveland. Elsewhere, the Dodgers officially learned outfielder A.J. Pollock will need surgery on his elbow. People come to see baseball games for the star players, but those injuries aren’t the reason attendance is down throughout the league, as starkly evidenced by a couple of day make-up games with empty stadiums Wednesday.
Corey Kluber is a two-time Cy Young award winner and, along with Trevor Bauer and Carlos Carrasco, headlines a great starting rotation. So this is a concern for the Indians.
Indians’ Corey Kluber reportedly suffered a non-displaced fracture of his right ulna bone after taking a liner off his elbow against the Marlins
(📹: @SportsTimeOhio)pic.twitter.com/VLIiOU8c7F
— SI MLB (@si_mlb) May 2, 2019
As for A.J. Pollock, this injury marks the continuation of an unfortunate trend of injuries in his career.
Dodgers outfielder AJ Pollock to undergo surgery for infection in right elbow. https://t.co/Kx0KQcvIHW
— AP Sports (@AP_Sports) May 2, 2019
So, we’ve all seen sparsely attended games before, but these Wednesday matinees in Kansas City and Chicago — and granted, they’re weekday games during the school year that weren’t originally scheduled that way — might take the cake.
Here was the view from center in Kansas City yesterday. It was a bingo of awful attendance adjectives — rescheduled weekday day game — but offered a stark illustration of attendance questions as MLB has dipped nearly 10 million from its peak crowds. Story: https://t.co/eDVLCKBzA0 pic.twitter.com/q8WjKvXniQ
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 2, 2019
The Angels’ Shohei Ohtani won’t pitch this year, but he’s more than ready to come back as a designated hitter.
Shohei Ohtani says he’s ready to play when Angels allow it.
>> https://t.co/zlpmwwVUPZ pic.twitter.com/W70jqGUH5W
— AP Sports (@AP_Sports) May 2, 2019
Finally, a strange story: Two sheriff’s deputies slid too far over into the realm of fandom when they entered the Yankees clubhouse in Arizona yesterday.
2 MCSO deputies tossed out of Yankees clubhouse after schmoozing players for autographs https://t.co/pfIiGtKAAS via @azcentral
— Chris Coppola (@chris_coppola) May 2, 2019
TOP STORIES
• Two-time Cy Young winner Corey Kluber breaks pitching arm after being hit by 102 mph liner | Fox News
• Dodgers’ A.J. Pollock out indefinitely, will have metal screw removed from elbow | Yahoo Sports
